Hey Coachmen! It was fifty years ago today that we sat mesmerized watching the Beatles as they took the US by storm. Listening now to the Ed Sullivan show on KVMRNevada City. A fateful day that changed the very essence of pop music, I can’t believe the music was so good and tight. Years of playing clubs showed. This was of course before the electronic world made any hack sound good. Every kid in america wanted to be just like them. It launched a thousand garage bands. Last night I picked up the guitar and sang Beatles songs in honor but there was something missing. Dan’s high part. We nailed those Beatles harmonies.

Dan’s circle of friends arrived from various points across the country to celebrate Halloween at his farm house outside Kingston Springs Tennessee. Everyone dropped psychedelics. Dan regaled stoned guests with hours of mime until dawn. Sometime much later Dan writes a song that reminds me of that evening.

Dan, Susie, Jude, Jon, Rajah photo by Lee

Seldom seen
A scarecrow’s dream
I hang in the hopes of replacement
Castles tall
I built them all
But I dream that I’m trapped inthe basement.
And if you ever hear me calling out
And if you’ve been by paupers crowned
Between the worlds of men and
make-believe
I can be found.
Plans I’ve made
A masquerade
Fading in fear of the coming day
Heroes’ tales
Like nightingales
Wrestle the wind as they run away.
And if you ever hear them calling out
And if you’ve been by paupers crowned
Between the worlds of men and make-
believe
I can be found.
Garden gate
An empty plate
Waiting for someone to come and fill
Scarecrow’s dreams
Like frozen streams
Thirst for the fall
But they’re running still.
And if you ever hear me calling out
And if you’ve been by paupers crowned
Between the worlds of men and
make-believe
I can be found.

The flip side of the Coachmen’s record: Maybe Time will Let Me Forget. Written and recorded by the Coachmen 1968. Dan Fogelberg, Jon Asher, Tom Cain, Terry Walters, Robyn Sleeth. Recorded at Golden Voice studios, Pekin Illinois.

Back in the day some of us partook in substances that we would smoke to enhance our creativity. But mostly we just got stupid and devoured bags of munchies. This might be the reason not much has changed in our society forty years later. Someone introduced a hookah that we enjoyed not so much for the high but the clouds of billowing white smoke it produced.

My old friends from Peoria reminded me of this story. On one such night after everyone was laying around stupid. Dan snuck out and returned with a painting that he hung in the living room of our friend Dave’s house. Then in dramatic Dan fashion made some excuse to get everyone in the living room and there it was- the Great White Whale.

White Whale by DFogelberg

It was a good time to be young. Thank you Dennis and Dave for the photos and memories. Here are some of their precious memories.